Poker After Dark: The New Nightlife Obsession

Sometimes while eating a bowl of Cheerios I'll flick on my old TV. I don't turn it on that often, as I'm a busy guy, and the distractions offered have lost my interest since Tony Soprano was popped by that Members Only guy. So I look for the World Series of Poker or Poker After Dark and watch millions of dollars depend on whether a heart is turned on the river. On TV and online, poker has swept the nation and is now sweeping clubdom. For years, small-time games were an after-hours alternative for hopped up clubbies looking for a different kind of thrill. It used to be $200 to $300 buy-ins with five or maybe eight tables and even a roulette wheel. Nowadays, $20,000 to $40,000 buy-ins are not unusual, and pots as high as $500K have been reported to me. Players are not only rich "garmentos" and waste-disposal characters but the rich and the famous -- including many well-known club owners and personalities. "I used to go in, and if I lost $5,000, I'd feel real bad ... $5,000 is a lot of money. No one wants to lose $5,000. But I can afford it, and I could go back the next day and win. Now the stakes are way higher, and I found myself sitting at a table with guys like Phil Ivey." These words from a familiar club mogul sum up the current state of New York City poker after dark.

Phil Ivey is an “as seen on TV” celebrity poker pro, considered one of the best in the business. “He even took an apartment in New York to get in on the action,” says my source. “The days of soda and chips and taking the bartenders tips are long gone,” volunteered another club promoter, who added, “I’m a degenerate gambler.” I was told that there are at least “ten regular games going on around town” and that there is indeed “a poker community where everyone knows everybody.” In addition, untold numbers of “house games” are springing up. Even the big games are moving from office buildings and basements into legitimate apartments, as it’s apparently harder for the police to raid an apartment. After all, poker is an American staple and once they go there, where does it stop?

In the summer of 1908, a fellow named Rasputin ran the gambling in Moscow. It got so insane that this slimy fellow replaced the tsar’s image on the king of spades with his own likeness. He didn’t come to a good end. The addiction, the power, the excitement of the game replaced all sensibility. It seems to be doing the same to many here. My source says that late-night poker is a who’s who of clubland. One A-list promoter known to all is “such a big fish” that my sources say “he just works to pay his debts, which have been staggering at times.” This top-of-the-line promoter is not content to hobnob with celebrities and long-legged damsels; “only at the table is he finding himself.” Continues another anonymous player, “I don’t know how he ever wins, he’s just awful, but once in awhile he gets lucky and believes that he is actually good.”

In August of 2007, at Rasputin restaurant in Brooklyn, a fellow developed a $50,000 gambling debt—but there were allegations that the game wasn’t entirely square. According to a U.S. attorney, the former owners of Rasputin brought down “an escalating reign of terror in an effort to get the deadbeat customer to pay.” This highly publicized case brought attention to this underground world. I want to be clear that the new owners of Rasputin, a top-tier Brooklyn joint, are not implicated in this mess. The games themselves are not such awful things. If patrons play within their means and have fun, what’s the harm? The danger comes when it becomes an addiction and loansharks and other sharks get into the picture. Tomorrow, we will talk about how it all works.